Kyle G. Quinn, the 19-year-old Kutztown University student killed Friday morning, was the genuine article, said a friend of Quinn’s.

"He was a genuine, young, funny and sarcastic guy," said Jillian Lentz, 21, a KU senior who grew up with Quinn in Warminster, Bucks County.

On Friday, Lentz went with her friends to visit the 100 block of Main Street where Quinn was killed.

"We were actually studying last night and that makes it even harder to know that while we were sitting inside studying, this was happening to him," she said.

Lentz said she received a campuswide e-mail from the university Friday about 10 a.m. announcing that Quinn had been killed.

KU spokesman Matt Santos said the university did not use its new emergency alert system because suspects were apprehended immediately and officials saw no further danger to students.

Lentz said she frantically began calling agencies to find out if the murder victim was her friend from home.

"When I saw the name, my heart dropped, but I wanted to confirm it was actually him," Lentz said.

"I finally called the dean of student affairs and they told me it was Kyle," Lentz said, her voice trailing off.

"He’s too young," she said. "He’s too young to be taken by this ridiculous act of violence.

"It needs to stop. Thank God I’m in my last semester."

Lentz said Quinn had been at his brother’s off-campus house and was walking back to his dorm when he was attacked. The brother’s name was unavailable.

"I saw him (Kyle Quinn) last Wednesday at the gym," Lentz said. "We were joking around. That was it."

Michael E. McHugh, 21, of Doylestown, Bucks County, said he and his roommates were getting back to their apartment in the 100 block of Main Street when they heard a commotion nearby on Noble Street.

"About two minutes later we saw police lights flashing out front of our building on Main Street," said McHugh, a junior.

"We came down and saw the guy laying there and the cops had two guys still inside a car and were throwing a third guy up against the car," McHugh said. "This isn’t something you expect to see in a small town like this."

One of McHugh’s roommates, Erick E. Petersen, 20, also a junior from Doylestown, said a carved wooden table leg lay near Quinn’s body.

By midafternoon, Petersen said he hadn’t yet called his mother with news of the killing.